Ex-Baseball Minor Leaguer Makes SCOTUS Debut in Transgender Case

J. Matthew Rice’s novel path to the law that included two seasons as a minor league baseball player lands him at the US Supreme Court lectern for the first time in one of the term’s most high-profile cases.

The former engineering student and pro ballplayer will argue on Wednesday as Tennessee’s solicitor general in support of his home state’s ban on certain medical treatments for transgender minors in United States v. Skrmetti.

Promoted to solicitor general last March, the Johnson City native’s legal resume has many hallmarks of the advocates that argue before the justices.

He graduated first in his class at Berkeley law school and spent a year clerking for Judge Sandra Ikuta of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He spent two stretches at the Washington-based litigation firm Williams & Connolly, clerking in between for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

“Matt Rice is a brilliant lawyer and an exceptional writer with a renowned work ethic and a remarkable record of success,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in announcing Rice’s promotion to solicitor general.

Paul Weiss partner and veteran Supreme Court advocate Kannon Shanmugam worked with Rice at Williams & Connolly and calls him “one of the rising stars of his generation of advocates.”

While numerous former clerks ultimately end up appearing before their former bosses at the high court, few can point to a resume that also boasts a degree in mechanical engineering and a stint playing professional baseball in the Tampa Bay Rays organization.

Baseball Record

Rice, 35, was originally drafted by the New York Yankees in 2010, but chose instead to complete his degree at Western Kentucky University. After graduation, he was drafted by the Rays and spent two seasons with the organization, including one in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he went to college.

Rice played as a catcher and and hit .295 in 128 games before retiring in 2013, the same year he enrolled in law school at Berkeley.

Mitch Lukevics, the Rays’ director of minor league operations told the National Law Journal in 2019, after Rice landed his clerkship with Thomas, that it is rare for a professional baseball player to retire at such an early point in their career. Even though Rice was a good player, “probably he thought his mind would be better than his bat,” Lukevics said.

After clerking for Ikuta and prior to joining Thomas for the 2019 term, Rice offered a formula for success that related to his baseball experience playing with “exemplary” teammates. “The important parallels that I have seen are that consistent effort and a team-based focus lead to quality results,” he told his alma mater Berkeley in a 2019 interview.

The Skrmetti case is the first time the court has taken up the issue of transgender rights since its divided 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County saying that federal employment protections cover transgender workers.

The Tennessee law, SB 1, at the heart of the dispute prohibits doctors from administrating puberty blockers or hormones to treat gender dysphoria, though it allows the treatments for other conditions. Gender dysphoria is a medical diagnosis for the psychological distress that stems from the conflict between a person’s gender identity and the sex they were identified as having at birth.

Arguing that the “use of gender-transition interventions for minors is a relatively recent practice,” Tennessee in its brief told the justices that states have “wide discretion to regulate medical practices, particularly in areas of scientific uncertainty.”

Rice will square off against US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, and the ACLU’s Chase Strangio, who will be the first openly transgender advocate to argue at the court.

Prelogar and Strangio say SB 1is an unconstitutional sex-based distinction that targets transgender minors for unfavorable treatment.

While both Strangio and Rice will be making their first high court appearances, Prelogar is a seasoned advocate who has argued the Biden administration’s highest profile cases.

But Lisa Blatt, who leads Williams & Connolly’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice and also worked with Rice during his second stint at the firm, said he is “a spectacular, straight to-the-point, seasoned advocate.”

“I have no doubt he will knock it out the park,” Blatt said.